Polly want a cracker?
Yeah, I guess that’s right. But now we have essentially
the same problem–how is the defendant going to prove he’s not invulnerable? Stab himself with a needle and insist that it really really hurts, for real, he promises?
OK. You are free to disagree with me.
I don’t think they are all that separate–they are just a specific instance of the self-defense rule.
By drawing blood.
I’m pretty sure they’re not written that way, but whichever - I’m prepared to admit that if Superman is being attacked in the Fortress of Solitude it is a different hypothetical with different results, and he may be legally justified in pulping the assailant in a way that he would not be if the dude attacked him on the streets.
But now you’re just highlighting the difficulty in defining “invulnerable.” Just because someone bleeds when they are pricked with a needle doesn’t mean they feel pain and can be hurt or killed.
I agree with Rand Rover on this: the onus is on you to prove that I’m invulnerable, not on me to prove that I’m not. And there’s no way in hell I’m going to give you permission to stab me with a needle when your goal is to screw me over.
Geez, remind me never to leave you alone in a room with my toddler and an inflatable hammer.
Nobody said you have to site there and take it, but there’s a lot of ground between that and hitting a kid. Like, restraining them without attempting to hurt them.
At any rate, I agree with the OPs metaphor, so I’d say non-violent restraint is the way to go. If you believe they’re a danger to others, some level of violence is permissible I suppose.
Yeah, if you’re invulnerable then you can restrain him easily. No reason not to and let the cops handle it.
Onus? I don’t think this is a legal question, just a moral question. The law isn’t exactly designed to accomodate superheroes.
Fair enough if that’s your response to someone trying to stab you; but I don’t think onus of proof comes into it in a “this is the law” sense.
A good analogy, if one’s attempting to apply law to it: what if someone’s trying to stab you with a blade of grass? Or attempting to bludgeon you with a feather? What is the appropriate response?
I would think you could strike back to stop the attack just as anyone could. Since you’re in no danger you’re only allowed to use minimal force. Just enough to stop yourself from being hit and to perhaps subdue the attacker until the cops get there.
ON a side issue, would being invulnerable mean your punches had a lot more effect?A little more?
I guess it would mean you could train in any discipline or martial art you wanted to and become adept since you’d never have a training injury.
More importently, does it mean you could never catch a buzz?
Well, you could punch as hard and as much as you liked without hurting yourself. Not being an experienced streetfighter, I don’t know how useful that is in a fight. I think I’d pull back in a punch because I think it would hurt, but I’d have to be in the situation to find out. Probably not if I was drunk!
If someone attcks you with a feather with the intent to kill, you’re still in danger. The attacker might at any moment realize that the feather isn’t doing the trick and assault you with something else. There’s always the danger of permanent damage or death in even the smallest fight between mortal humans.
Let’s suppose our invulnerable person feels pain like any other person. I’ve never been stabbed but I’d imagine it’s very unpleasant. For normal people pain also means your body is being damaged, sometimes permanently. This is not the case with our theoretical invulnerable person. How far should he be able to go to defend himself from something, while very unpleasant, doesn’t do any permanent damage?
What I’ve wondered is why he stands there when he’d being shot, but then dodges when the villian runs out of bullets and throws the gun at him.
In a state with a castle-doctrine law, if you’re out in your yard and someone charges you with a knife, you’re allowed to shoot them instead of running into your house. But if you do run into your house, I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to come back out with your gun just to get a better shot.
As for invulnerable punches being potentially harder, you can easily hurt yourself with an unskilled punch, but if you know what you’re doing, it’s going to hurt the other guy a heck of a lot more than you. A trained martial artist is pretty much always going to be hitting as hard as his muscles allow, and just sucking up the relatively small amount of pain to himself. I can’t see an invulnerable person having much edge, there. Now, where you would have an edge would be that you wouldn’t have to devote any effort to defense, which is relevant because your opponent will be most vulnerable at the moment that he himself is striking. So if you don’t have to worry about blocking/dodging/rolling, you could just wait and strike at the same moment as him.
Sure. I’ve no real position on the matter; I can see that as a reasonable stance.
Well that’s a supposition; I would imagine that nobody would have the wherewithal to not defend themselves against pain unless they have the additional superpower of super-willpower. I certainly couldn’t, I’m sure.
Presumably a strong person could still knock you down or what-not, though? Even if it doesn’t hurt, you’re not rooted in place. So you need to devote something to defence otherwise you won’t get chance to do anything.
A larger stronger opponent could throw you or push you down but I’d be surprised if you’d be knocked down by a blow if you were invulnerable.
The edge would be having your opponent burn out while not being able to hurt you at all. You could feign being hurt waiting for them to drop their guard.
Exactly how are you going to prove he assaulted you when the cops arrive and you are calmly sitting on top of him without a scratch, while he writhes in pain, probably bloodied or bruised from the fight? How about the second time, the third?
I say kick the assailant’s butt.
What’s the fun of a superpower if you need a law degree to decide when to use it? And do you really want a file created on you documenting your invulnerability? Then whoever might want to apprehend you, for whatever reason, knows to bring a net and a big box.
Oh God
No! ZOD!
In the first 10 issues of Valiants Dr Solar there’s a bonus story on which the now supremely powerful Dr Solar decides to dismantle all the worlds nuclear weapons. When someone realizes the mysterious force is him he is told,
“They won’t let you get away with this”
“Who is going to stop me?” is his response and one of my favorite uses of the line.